Motorola Mobility names Rick Osterloh as COO ahead of Lenovo buy

The appointment was made public on Wednesday on Motorola's official blog by Jonathan Rosenberg, who will continue in his role as Google liaison and adviser to Motorola through the transition period.

Lenovo agreed to buy Google's Motorola handset division for $2.91 billion in January, in what was China's largest-ever tech deal.

"We're confident in his (Osterloh's) ability to not only manage a smooth transition at Motorola from Google to Lenovo but, also to lead the business forward for continued growth," said Liu Jun, EVP, Mobile Business Group, Lenovo.

Osterloh, who was responsible for the delivery of software and operation of the Android platform at Motorola, joined the company seven years ago and left for a 2-year stint in between at Skype.

Back in February, Motorola Mobility's CEO Dennis Woodside announced he was leaving the smartphone maker to become chief operating officer at the online storage firm Dropbox. Google senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg took up the post of Motorola chief operating officer on April 1.

The shift follows unconfirmed reports that Dropbox has filed for an initial public offering under a law that allows emerging companies to keep financial data confidential until just before the IPO.

Such a move would put Dropbox and the growing business of online storage into the spotlight and likely give the group hefty valuation.

Written with inputs from Reuters and AFP